Occupy Offshoot Buys Up Debt with Aim of Forgiveness

Banking Law

Occupy Offshoot Buys Up Debt with Aim of Forgiveness

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Nov 15, 2012, 11:29 am CST

An offshoot of Occupy Wall Street is trying to improve the financial picture of some Americans by buying up debt for pennies on the dollar, with no intent to collect.

The group is called Strike Debt, the New York Times reports. It has already raised $129,000 in online donations and will hold a fundraiser Thursday evening.

First on the group’s acquisition list is medical debt, to be followed by tuition debt and credit card debt.

A September article in the Nation explained the group’s philosophy. “Debt, a growing number of organizers believe, has the potential to serve as a kind of connective tissue for the Occupy movement, uniting increasingly dispersed organizing efforts around a common problem (debt) as opposed to a common tactic (occupation),” the article says.